There's a trope in a lot of fiction where, in a battle between two armies, the leaders of each will inevitably fight each other in 1v1 duels. I can't think of a single case where that happened historically, though.

...How in the hell do you justify the Reach and the Stormlands being depopulated? Neither was particularly affected by the WoFK; the stormlands lost a lot of men in the battle of the Blackwater, but it takes more than one battle to depopulate a region to the point where there is literally nobody to fight anymore. Same with the Reach, which has been practically free of fighting, especially on-screen fighting.

I don't believe either of these countries is surrounded by an active terrorist insurgency

Terrorist insurgencies in Xinjiang are the entire reason why China is cracking down on muslims, and Saudi Arabia is not only near ISIS and Iraq, the holy grail of terrorist insurgencies, but it also used rocket attacks as justification for its involvement in Yemen. So no, Israel is not uique in that regard.

Obviously, some people who hate Israel are antisemites, just like a lot of people who hate Pakistan are racist against Pakistani. But what you're basically saying is criticism of Israel = antisemetism, which is ridiculous.